"A Deeply Flawed, if Masterfully Written, Game"

Story (15/10): That's right. You read that score right. Planescape: Torment is, without a doubt, the most well-written game ever created. The quality of writing within this game rivals mainstream authors and books. If you're looking for the Moby Dick or Ulysses of games, this is where you should start.

The characters? Wonderfully fleshed out. Every single character is given extensive background and extensive interactive capabilities, to the point where you truly and absolutely care about the fates of your comrades. Thought romances in Baldur's Gate II were awesome? There was romance here before BG2 concieved of it, and it was maturely approached and maturely written, with little sappiness or saccharine triteness. The characters, even if their makeup is fundamentally fantastical, are positively real and believable.

The themes? Philosophically complex and universally mature and thought-provoking. The power of language, the power of names, the power of a single letter, the powe of the written word, both evoked as a theme and as evidence within the quality of approach that the story takes. Solipsism, the ability for a person's belief to shape his reality, existentialism, all touched on with satisfying depth. Mortality, immortality, the consequences of actions, the murkiness of good and evil - masterfully handled.

The story itself? Gripping. Moving. Compelling. If this was a book, I'd tritely call it "a page-turner." The game presents such a masterful degree of suspense and mystery as to compel you always to play just a few minutes more, until the next thing you know, it's 4 AM.

And I can not emphasize the quality of the writing. I've had a lot of "great moments" in games, but this is the only game that has made me have "great moments" through text alone. Planescape: Torment shows masterfully how feeble the latest 3D engine can be when compared to the impact of a brilliantly crafted piece of text.

To be fair, this game is not for everyone. There is a "lot" of text and reading to do. In fact, some estimates put it at enough words to fill an entire volume of the Encyclopedia Britannica. But, when I say "this game is not for everyone," I mean that if you're the type of person who thinks deep reading is Sports Illustrated and the highest level of intellectual stimulation you aspire to is lighting your farts on fire with a lighter, then you should probably not play this game and probably not breed so that your bad genetic material won't pollte the rest of society. Even if you are adverse to reading, you - must - play - this - game. You will apprecate the power of text and you will be a better person for having played this game. I kid you not. It's that good.

Sound (8/10): The sound effects are ho-hum, but what really shines is the music. Some of it seems like it is pulled directly from Fallout (not surprising, since Black Isle also crafted that series as well), but the truly unique pieces of music are used well, significantly so.

Replayability (4/10): I'm going to be frank. The only reason to replay this game is akin to re-reading a book. If it's a rainy day and you want to curl up with a favorite book - that kind of situation. Otherwise, there's little actual reason to play this game again.

Gameplay (2/10): Yeah, I did it. The gameplay in this game is quite bad. Quite shocking as this is Black Isle we're talking about. But combat is horribly clunky, the re-designed interface is conducive towards dialogue and not fighting. Spells are poorly documented, and some of them are deeply buggy and flawed. Fortunately, you can bypass most of combat in the game (I believe there are only 5 required battles) and there are plenty of opportunities to level up outside of combat (in fact, most of your experience will probably come more role-playing situations).

That being said, as a pure adventure game (where you just walk around, interact with people, and solve simple puzzles), Planescape: Torment is well done. Dialogue is immersive to no end, there are many, many satisfying side plots, almost every person you see is relevant in some shape or form.

Final Assessment (7/10): As a game and a RPG combat system, it can be annoyingly bad. But, the story is gripping and the writing amazing. Its cripplingly bad system is what keeps this game from being a masterpiece, but if you want to see what games have the potential to be, that is an actual art form, you *need* to play this game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/27/06